Playground design for city of Korntal-Münchingen

Working on a playground for children it's a lot of responsibility and is more about working proactively. Looking out for tripping hazards, like exposed concrete footings, tree stumps, and rocks is a first approach to the task. Elevated surfaces, like platforms and ramps, have guardrails to prevent falls. As the weather warms up and outside play becomes more frequent, water can be a perfect solution for a playground. The water play equipment guarantees hours of fun, and combined with normal equipment can be a nice solution for a playground. The children will definitely want to come here more often.

The importance here is to design for different types of play possibilities. Children use different types of play to understand the world around them and to master first skills. Unfortunately, most playgrounds only focus on active, physical types of play. A good playground challenges for children is to engage in multiple different types of play. Children need to use their bodies and minds and interact with the environment and others.

The most common playground would be an active one where the children interact with it by moving the body. A sensory playground could be seeing different perspectives and angles as well as beautiful shapes and colors. This could lead to a creative game where expression allows children to communicate and connect. By being creative there is also an act of imaginary scenes and adoption of role models. Social skills are developed here and following spontaneous “rules” makes the children play. Of course these aren’t the only ways children play, but these categories help us to do some reflections about it.